How Your House Works - Hardcover

Vandervort, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517163411 ISBN 13: 9780517163412

Publisher: Gramercy, 2001

Synopsis

A VISUAL DICTIONARY TO THE WORKINGS OF YOUR HOME!
Backed by the expertise of the editors of HOME(c) magazine, How Your House Works is a fully illustrated, hands-on visual guide that provides a complete blueprint of every system and structure in your home. From water meter to faucet, from electric meter to lightbulb, this entertaining, beautifully designed volume will answer many questions you might have about your home's electrical system, plumbing, heating, structure, interior, and design, covering every component you can imagine...including the kitchen sink.
* Interior and exterior lighting * Switches * Ceiling fans * Doorbells * Telephones * Security systems * Smoke detectors * Furnaces * Air conditioners * Heat pumps * Thermostats * Humidifiers * Air cleaners * Ventilators * Fireplaces * Drains * Water supply * Faucets * Bathroom fixtures * Sprinklers * Sump pumps * House framing * Roofing * Siding * Insulation * Doors and windows * Porches, decks, and sunspaces * Walls, ceilings, and moldings * Wood, tile, and stone floors * Carpets * Cabinets * Countertops * Home safety * Basic and enhanced toolboxes * And much, much more!
If you want to talk knowledgeably to contractors, architects, and designers; prepare for emergencies by learning where to shut off the gas and water lines; find out how the heat in your house circulates; identify all those confusing connections in your fusebox; or just wish to be educated about the infrastructure of your home, this is the first book you'll turn to and the last book you'll ever need.

About this title

From the Publisher

You don't really want to fix that broken thermostat yourself, you just want to understand what's wrong with it. I've found that sometimes simply using the correct nomenclature with repair guys and contractors knocks a few hundred dollars off the estimate. This book can help you understand how your house works and what to start with when it doesn't.

--Sue Miller, National Accounts Manager

From Publishers Weekly

Vandervort, a columnist for Home magazine, takes readers on a clear and useful tour of what can be at once the most familiar and most alien of places?the home. Each chapter addresses a general "system" in the house and is subdivided into sections on specific parts of the system. The "Pipe Schemes" chapter, for example, includes sections on the inner workings of specific fixtures like hot-water heaters, toilets and sump pumps, as well as the path that natural gas takes through your home, from the gas meter to the stove. Despite its occasional gee-whiz tone, ("Now electricity zings through wires to power the many conveniences that make our lives comfortable"), the text is lucid. Illustrative line drawings are plentiful. While this general-use guide won't help if you need to know where the reverse-osmosis module in your water filter is, it is a fine basic reference book, of particular value to those considering major construction work. And, if you want to know what that thingamajig that holds the gutter to the fascia is called, Vandervort will keep you from sounding like an idiot at the hardware store. (It's either a clip hanger or a spike and ferrule hanger.)
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gramercy
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0517163411
• ISBN 13: 9780517163412
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224